Americans 'Blind' to 'Extraordinary Progress' Under Obama
"The
president hardly reacted to the vitriol of his detractors, which allowed them
to gain advantage in the shaping of public opinion. Out of this emerge the
negative assessments about his first year in power, leaving many Americans
blind to the extraordinary progress that his government represents in
comparison with his predecessor."
Partly because of the
protagonist's origins - the term "unprecedented" has been glued to
President Barack Obama's skin. But he willingly dispensed with the latest
novelty connected to him. After all, upon completing their first year in the White
House, none of his predecessors received a birthday cake of such bitterness.
The present was given by a majority of the Massachusetts electorate, a state
that was historically second to none in its sympathy for the Democratic Party.
In the special election to fill the vacant Senate seat of Ted Kennedy, who died
last year after 46 years of consecutive terms marked by robust left-wing
positions, Democratic candidate Martha Coakley was defeated by Republican Scott
Brown, a rookie state senator best known for having posed semi-nude in a men's
magazine [Actually, he posed for Cosmopolitan - a magazine for women.
See below]. For Obama, this was two copious portions of bitterness.
Senator-elect
Scott Brown appears in Cosmopolitan magazine, 1981.
The first portion was the practical
effect of political transposition of the vacant Senate seat. The Democrats lost
the so-called super majority of 60 seats to 40, and with that, the procedural
power to stop the opposition from obstructing the pursuit of government programs,
starting with Obama's most visible election plank, the huge overhaul of the health
care system. Like the House of Representatives, the Senate had already approved
its own proposal. From hereon out, Republicans can block a vote on the text to
unify the two versions [aka/conciliation]. The second source of bitterness is
the symbolic effect of the result. Attested to in the polls, this crystallizes
the perception that the Obamania that emerged with his campaign and blossomed
with his victory has been amply replaced by condemnation of his policies and
performance. In a single year, his approval rating has fallen from almost 70
percent to 50 percent, and his disapproval rating has risen from 12 percent to
44 percent.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Ultimately, Obama humbly
admitted in an interview with ABC Television [watch below] that he only has
himself to blame. On taking over, it seems Obama piously believed that he had a
magic touch that would unite the country around a common purpose, and as he
proclaimed in his inaugural speech, would leave behind the conflict and discord
of the Bush years. Certainly, he counted on the impact of his
"unprecedented" election and his potential to transform his charisma
into leadership - and on the collapse of the Republican Party. But, under the weight
of a crisis of global proportions and the cursed legacy of Bushism, which
forced him to launch an economic stimulus package of about $800 billion and
bleed the national budget with two ongoing wars, Obama left healthcare to the
politicians. Meanwhile - and with relative success - he worked to restore the
image of the United States around the world. But China, Iran and Israel, each in
its own way, left him empty handed.
President
Obama discusses his first year in office with ABCNews
He didn't give proper weight
to Republican views in the mainstream media and the blogosphere under the
command of the extreme right. Exploring the insecurity of a population facing
rising unemployment and with home ownership threatened, the old fans of
unbridled capitalism began to accuse the government of playing into the hands
of big lenders (and, later, the auto industry), pointing the occupation of the White
House by the same luminaries who were complacent or complicit with Wall Street
in plunging the economy into an abyss. At the same time, they began to bombard
the health plan with an unlimited virulence. For example, the socialist Obama would
create "death panels" to select who would receive medical care and
who would be marked for death. Meanwhile, the "Tea Party" movement
denounced Obama's supposed intention to pull one over on the taxpayer to
finance the trillion-dollar scheme to "socialize medicine," and called
on him to confront a public deficit of 11 percent of GDP - as though it hadn't
arisen from the unbridled profligacy of the Bush Administration.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Cerebral, averse
to confrontation, forgetful that the political polarization of the United
States is profound and long-lasting, and finally, imprisoned by the priority of
"health care reform" before "jobs and homes," the president
hardly reacted to the vitriol of his detractors, which allowed them to gain
advantage in the shaping of public opinion. Out of this emerge the negative assessments
about his first year in power, leaving many Americans blind to the
extraordinary progress that his government represents in comparison with his
predecessor.
